Pakistani police check vehicles on a checkpoint outside the Sindh provincial governor's office in Karachi, where Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held a special cabinet meeting on the deteriorating security situation in the city.
KARACHI: When Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif assured all segments of society yesterday that peace would be brought back to Karachi, many were not ready to buy his words as history has made them sceptical.
Despite the seriousness showed by the federal government, people in Karachi wonder what lies ahead for them, with threats ranging from militancy to targeted killings and street crimes to kidnapping for ransom tormenting them daily.
Experts concur that all the stakeholders responsible for making Karachi a peaceful city have systematically sowed violence in the metropolis over the years.
Take the political parties. It is no secret that all of them have militant wings. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which claims to enjoy the electoral mandate of the city, has a blood-soaked history and a violent track record.
The PPP has links with the outlawed Peoples Amn Committee (PAC), accused of running an extortion racket across the city.
As for the law enforcement agencies, the police are corrupt and politicised, and the paramilitary Rangers are fast learning the ropes from the police.
Political observers wonder under what policy the Rangers have evicted gangsters belonging to the Awami National Party, particularly after the May 11 elections from a few city localities, including Gulistan-i-Jauhar, and replaced them with those of the PAC.
Political observers, rights activists and security experts agree on one point: time is running out.
With over 1,890 people having already been killed in targeted attacks in the first eight months of the year across Karachi, they suggest even-handed action against every individual and group involved in crimes.
Apart from politically motivated killings, deadly attacks carried out for sectarian reasons have seen a surge, with banned outfits such as Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, as well as Shia groups, undertaking tit-for-tat killings.
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